[PHOTO: Gregory Shamus]
The top-ranked player in the Americans’ Solheim Cup win couldn’t stay at Sunday night’s victory party for long. After a 3-1-0 week, Nelly Korda was among the first to leave the adrenaline-fuelled celebration for the team’s first win in seven years. The 26-year-old’s mind was out of the team room and onto the next event – this week’s Kroger Queen City Championship. If Korda didn’t make her 10:30pm bedtime, she was concerned about being exhausted for Cincinnati.
That “let’s move on” focus was apparent in the world No.1’s pre-tournament press conference when she got in a sly joke on getting back to business while reflecting on her appreciation for her Solheim Cup teammates.
“Just hate all the girls again,” Korda said to laughter.
“It’s crazy,” she added more seriously, “the friendships that you do make during Solheim Cup when you guys are all on one team.”
Korda needed to salvage whatever energy she could after a week of 4:30am bus rides to Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, where she better got to know Solheim Cup standout rookies Sarah Schmelzel and Lauren Coughlin, as well as Rose Zhang, her young rival who went undefeated against Europe.
Korda flew out of the American capital with most of the American players about noon on Monday. She arrived in Cincinnati and got to her house for the week to spend a laid-back Monday evening. Korda first saw TPC River’s Bend – the new venue for the tournament after Kenwood Country Club, the host for the first two years, bowed out due to course renovations – on Tuesday.
“It’s a nice golf course,” Korda said. “First time in Cincinnati. You can tell that maybe they’ve had a drier summer so they’ve really watered the golf course.”
Even in a first visit, Korda’s sightseeing is usually limited to coffee shops with friends during tournament weeks to conserve her energy. Still recovering from last week, she is resting even more than she typically would. “I’ve spent a lot more time in my bed this week than normal,” Korda explained.
Korda returns to strokeplay with an infinitesimally tiny lead in the LPGA’s Vare Trophy race, the award for the lowest scoring average on tour. At 70.04, she is 0.02 ahead of Evian Championship winner Ayaka Furue (70.06), who is not in this week’s field. The winner of the award earns a valuable LPGA Hall of Fame point.
Korda’s runaway advantage earlier this year shrunk due to an inconsistent northern summer, with three missed cuts and average-busting rounds in the 80s in both the US Women’s Open and the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Korda’s more consistent form that won six of seven events from January to May resurfaced with a T-2 in the Women’s Open ahead of the Solheim Cup.
After the Kroger, It will be another month before Korda can try to expand her Vare lead, as the Floridian’s next LPGA event will be across the Pacific Ocean in South Korea in the BMW Ladies Championship beginning on October 17.
